


Next to you

by storylinecontinuum



Series: Historical USUK [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Historical Hetalia, M/M, pre ww2 feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24837517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storylinecontinuum/pseuds/storylinecontinuum
Summary: Try as he might, he can’t stop the ecstatic intake of breath as he sees Arthur descend the steps of the train onto American soil, looking slightly weary but just as familiar and just as himself as ever. Alfred is happy to see him, the world might as well know by now. The true depth of what he feels when he looks into those green eyes however, he keeps to himself.----A fic covering the royal state visit to the US in June 1939.
Relationships: America/England (Hetalia)
Series: Historical USUK [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814824
Comments: 7
Kudos: 65





	Next to you

**Author's Note:**

> During the royal tour of Canada in 1939, King George VI and Elizabeth visited the United States following an invitation by Roosevelt himself. The visit lasted only four days but marked the first time in history a reigning British Monarch set foot on American soil. At a time when Nazi Germany was gearing up for a war that would break out just three months later, the event was intended to send a clear message of the strengthening relationship between the US and Britain.

Alfred would be lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to the royal visit. And he would lie even more vehemently if someone caught on to why exactly he was so eager.

Try as he might though, he can’t stop the ecstatic intake of breath as he sees Arthur descend the steps of the train onto American soil, looking slightly weary but just as familiar and just as _himself_ as ever.

Alfred is happy to see him, the world might as well know by now. The true depth of what he feels when he looks into those green eyes however, he keeps to himself.

It immediately becomes obvious that Canada isn’t with them. He was supposed to come but something had put him under the weather – something that had to do with the royal’s stay at his place prior to their arrival in the US – and he’d said he might opt to wait for them back home.

Alfred feels like he should dwell more on that uncanny state of his brother’s mood. But there are other things that matter now. England is here, Alfred reminds himself excitedly, and Alfred is about to take him on the best four-day official visit of his life.

Arthur doesn’t seem to suspect it at first. But that’s before he sees the elated crowds, people in the thousands that are all there to welcome him and his king and queen. Alfred can tell they’re off to a good start by the look on Arthur’s face. He’s rather pleased with himself for that achievement.

But Arthur is quick to take the spotlight when it comes to achievement. It becomes apparent as soon as they’re in DC.

Unlike the force of nature he becomes on the battlefield, Arthur is the epitome of impeccable manners here. Those who are trying their best at the official dinner have nothing on him and Alfred can practically feel the strong impression already forming in his people.

They eye Arthur with little comprehension but mountains of respect. Alfred is both awed and disgruntled by it. Most of all he is envious but he knows how attraction works and he knows he’s making up excuses for himself.

On top of it all Arthur shows an impressive knack for getting on Alfred’s good graces this time round, even if he seems completely unaware of it.

He’s respectful at Mount Vernon. Incredibly so. Part of Alfred should have seen it coming because as hard as it is to admit, Arthur has always been a good judge of character and he does well by the people who earn his admiration. Unless his pride is too swollen and gets in the way but Alfred had promised himself not to give into any petty thoughts during the visit.

But there’s something off about Arthur too… something about his mood.

He brightens up momentarily at the food. Well, of course, Arthur being Arthur, the most enjoyable part for him so far had been the yacht ride to Mount Vernon but the food seems to be a close second.

Alfred nearly does a fist pump at the pleasant surprise on Arthur’s face as he tries a hot dog for the first time and as usual the old man can’t keep his hands off the sweets – some tea time habits are hard to get rid of and so charmingly familiar that Alfred has to stop himself from smiling.

It’s almost pathetic how excited he gets by the other’s happiness. How he’d delighted at seeing Arthur’s expressions at the World’s Fair, knowing that the other was making the appropriate association to his own Great Exhibition.

And yet otherwise the air around England is… a cloud of gloom.

At first Alfred thinks it’s just melancholy – the sort of nostalgia that Arthur easily falls into. He’s just that old after all. But it doesn’t take Alfred long to realize it’s more than that.

It tramples his excitement a bit. But he lets it slide for the sake of amiability.

He makes sure to be there when his guests prepare to board the train back to Canada. Last minute conversation is exchanged between him and Arthur and the royals and he even allows himself the luxury of patting England on the back before the other climbs the first step of the train carriage.

The words he says then slip out of him unbidden – a simple request for reassurance from someone who has a long journey ahead of them.

“You’re gonna be okay?” Alfred asks, directing the question at the other still lingering nation.

And then he hears it.

So quiet that he’ll spend days afterwards agonizing over whether he didn’t just imagine it. 

“I’m scared.”

Alfred freezes.

For a second it’s all gone. The screaming train whistle, the buzzing crowd, the mishmash of English accents. Then it’s back in a flash, the moment Arthur’s spine straightens and he looks at Alfred for a final goodbye.

Alfred shakes his hand in a daze.

Later on, hindsight will be much wiser than that moment on the crowded train platform. Alfred has no way of knowing that the Second World War – so plainly inevitable no matter what some liked to think – would be the beginning of the end for England’s empire.

Alfred has no way of knowing. But Arthur did.

They all have this sixth sense, his ilk, a warning from the future before it strikes. Fainter than a gut feeling and as intrusive as a splinter beneath healed skin. England must have caught it among the miasma that hovered over Europe in the anticipation of the war.

Alfred himself had fled on every occasion the war was mentioned between the king and his president, even though he was aware of the necessity of those talks. Arthur had stayed behind through and he should have been happy because at the end of the day Arthur had an agenda and that agenda was being advanced in those talks.

But his words… “I’m scared.”

_I’m scared._

They cling to the Back of Alfred’s mind like a spider. England doesn’t get scared – the England he knows doesn’t _know_ fear, it’s a foreign concept for him…

So if he is scared now, what does that mean? Alfred’s heart breaks over and over again as he remembers that small tone of voice and it keeps breaking even when he’s so close to convincing himself it had all been a trick of his mind.

He watches the train pull out of the station. A part of him desperately wants to run after it. His feelings for England are convoluted, just as their history, but a string runs from that mess of tangles and connects to his heart, pulling insistently.

He wants to be next to Arthur. Next to the Arthur sitting on the grass at Top Cottage, manners be damned, an image that’s seared into Alfred’s mind forever. But his sixth sense is telling him that there’s a wall between them that’s yet to fall.

A wall that’s going to crumble under the chorus of bombs.


End file.
